Three dimensional device integration method and integrated device

ABSTRACT

A device integration method and integrated device. The method may include the steps of directly bonding a semiconductor device having a substrate to an element; and removing a portion of the substrate to expose a remaining portion of the semiconductor device after bonding. The element may include one of a substrate used for thermal spreading, impedance matching or for RF isolation, an antenna, and a matching network comprised of passive elements. A second thermal spreading substrate may be bonded to the remaining portion of the semiconductor device. Interconnections may be made through the first or second substrates. The method may also include bonding a plurality of semiconductor devices to an element, and the element may have recesses in which the semiconductor devices are disposed. A conductor array having a plurality of contact structures may be formed on an exposed surface of the semiconductor device, vias may be formed through the semiconductor device to device regions, and interconnection may be formed between said device regions and said contact structures.

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of priorityunder 35 U.S.C. §120 from U.S. application Ser. No. 10/011,432, filedDec. 11, 2001, now allowed, which is a continuation of U.S. Pat. No.6,984,571, issued Jan. 10, 2006 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,500,694, issued Dec.31, 2002 the entire contents of which are incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to three-dimensionally integratedsemiconductor devices and, in particular, to semiconductor devicesvertically bonded together to form three-dimensional structures.

2. Discussion of the Background

The ability to integrate determines the success of the semiconductorindustry. This was first demonstrated with the invention of theintegrated circuit (IC). The IC essentially consists of fabrication ofelectronic components at the surface of the semiconductor wafer followedby interconnection of these components with metallization on top of thecomponents. The dramatic reduction in cost and increase in performancethat has resulted from this integration has had a profound economicimpact.

Since the invention of the IC, the semiconductor industry hasexperienced continued rapid growth due to continuous improvements in theintegration density of various electronic components (i.e., transistors,diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc.) achieved. For the most part, thisimprovement in integration density has come from repeated reduction inminimum feature size which allow more components to be integrated in agiven area. Additional improvement has come from increases in wafersize.

These integration improvements are essentially two-dimensional (2-D) innature, in that the volume occupied by the integrated components isessentially at the surface of semiconductor wafer. Although dramaticimprovements in lithography have resulted in considerable improvement inthis 2-D integration, there are physical limits to the density which canbe achieved in 2-D. One of these limits is simply the minimum sizeneeded to make these components. Another limit is the significantincrease in interconnect requirements between components as thecomponent size is reduced.

Efforts to achieve integration beyond that available with 2-D has beenexplored and resulted in improvement in chip memory and furthersemiconductor industry growth. For instance, the trench capacitor usessignificant semiconductor volume below the wafer surface and allows morefunctionality to be achieve in a given chip area. Other efforts,directed at achieving higher levels of integration by increased use ofthe volume in a given chip area, have recently increased. One approachhas been to iterate the integration process by adding semiconductormaterial on top of the interconnect metallization followed by additionalinterconnect metallization. Although this potentially results in morecomponents per chip area, it suffers from other problems includingsignificantly increased thermal budgets. In addition, this and otherefforts are distinct in that they only use one substrate and then workon one surface of that substrate. Not subjecting the devices to thethermal processes involved in fabricating the interconnect wouldsimplify and enhance the fabrication of the devices.

Another problem results from the lagging of the ability to scaleinterconnect dimensions compared to scaling device dimensions. Ideally,one wants the critical dimension of a via to be the same as a gatedimension. However, since the scaling of vias lags the scaling ofdevices, integration density is limited.

Further problems arise when trying to integrate different types oftechnologies into a single circuit or wafer. BiCMOS is one example.Typically, special processing techniques must be devised to be able tocombine the technologies. Processes required for one technology ofteninterfere with processes required for another. As a result, compromisesare made. The overall development of the combined technology becomesfrozen in time, making flexible integration of the technologies that arebeing combined very difficult if not impossible. In other words, themost advanced “best of breed” technologies are not combined andevolutions in the technologies cannot be exploited.

Another problem of combining technologies is that customization mustoccur up front. One must first design the processing to combine thetechnologies and thus the limitations are built into the device. Again,one cannot easily take advantage of evolutions and improvements intechnology since that requires redesigning the processing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and devicehaving high integration density.

It is another object of the invention to provide a method and devicewhere different types of materials may be integrated.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method ofintegrating different types of devices, and a structure comprising theintegrated devices.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method and devicewhere different types of technologies are integrated.

It is a still further object of the invention to avoid or minimize thethermal budgets in interconnecting devices.

It is yet another object of the invention to allow the integration ofthe best available technologies without making significant processingcompromises.

A still further object is to provide improved interconnection of bondeddevices, and between devices and boards, cards and/or substrates.

These and other objects may be obtained by a method of forming anintegrated device including the steps of forming a first bondingmaterial on a first semiconductor device having a first substrate,forming a second bonding material on a first element having a secondsubstrate and directly bonding the first and second bonding materials. Aportion of the first substrate may be removed to expose a remainingportion of the first semiconductor device, and the integrated device maybe mounted in a package.

The first semiconductor device may be connected to the package from anexposed side of the remaining portion of the first semiconductor device.The first semiconductor device may have a substrate with top and bottomsides, with an active area being formed in the top side, and the packagemay be connected to the first semiconductor device from the bottom side.A second element having a third substrate may be bonded to the remainingportion of the first semiconductor device, the first element may beremoved or substantially removed and the semiconductor device may beconnected to the package from the top side.

The first semiconductor device may have a plurality of levels ofinterconnect, and connections may be formed to at least one of thelevels of interconnect from an exposed remaining portion side. Aplurality of levels of interconnect may also be formed from an exposedremaining portion side. A connection may be made directly to a deviceelement region of the first semiconductor device.

The method according to the invention may also include steps of bondinga first thermal spreading substrate to a first semiconductor devicehaving a device substrate, removing a portion of the device substrate toexpose a remaining portion of the first semiconductor device, andbonding a second thermal spreading substrate to the remaining portion ofthe first semiconductor. A plurality of levels of interconnect may beformed in the first semiconductor device, and connections to at leastone of these levels of interconnect may be made using the first orsecond thermal spreading substrates. The connections to the levels ofinterconnect may be formed using an aerial contacting method andconnections may be made directly to device element regions of thesemiconductor device.

The method according to the invention may also include steps of directlybonding a first semiconductor device having a first substrate to anelement, removing a portion of the first substrate to expose a remainingportion of the first semiconductor device after bonding, wherein theelement may comprise one of a substrate used for thermal spreading,impedance matching or for RF isolation, an antenna and a matchingnetwork comprised of passive elements. The remaining portion of thefirst semiconductor device may be interconnected with the element and aportion of the remaining portion may be removed to expose a portion ofthe element.

The method according to the invention may also include directly bondinga first component of a system to a second component of the system, andinterconnecting the first and second components. The first component maybe bonded to a second component having a substrate, at least a portionof the substrate may be removed and the first and second components maybe interconnected from the side of the second component from which theportion has been removed. A shielding member, an isolation member or anantenna may be bonded to at least one of the first and secondcomponents. The antenna may also be interconnected with at least one ofthe first and second components. An optical device may be bonded to anelectrical device, or a lower-speed higher-density semiconductor devicemay be bonded to a higher-speed lower-density semiconductor device. Thefirst and second semiconductor devices may be of different technologies.As an example, a microprocessor may be bonded to a high density memorydevice or, as another example, first and second solar cells may bebonded together.

The method according to the invention may also include attaching aplurality of first elements to a surface of a substrate to form a secondelement, and directly bonding the second element, from a side to whichthe first elements are attached, to a third element. The attaching stepmay comprise directly bonding each of the plurality of first elements toa surface of the substrate. A portion of the second element may beremoved after bonding. The first elements may be interconnected with thethird element, the first elements may be interconnected using the secondelement, and the first elements and third element may be interconnectingusing at least one of the second and third elements. Recesses may beformed in the second element, and the first elements may be bonded tothe second element in the recesses.

As a further embodiment, a method may include steps of forming a firstbonding material on a first semiconductor device and forming a secondbonding material on a second element. The first and second bondingmaterials may be directly bonded, and a conductor array may be formedhaving a plurality of contact structures on an exposed surface of thefirst semiconductor device. Vias may be formed through the firstsemiconductor device to the device regions, and interconnections may beformed between the device regions and the contract structures. Theconductor array may comprise a pin grid array. The method may furtherinclude mating the pin grid array with conductive regions formed on oneof a board, card and substrate.

The device according to the invention may include a first device portioncomprised of a first device having a first substrate from which thefirst substrate have been removed, a first bonding material formed onthe first device portion, a first element having a second bondingmaterial formed thereon, with the first bonding material directly bondedto the second bonding material. The first device portion may comprise afirst solar cell portion and the first element may comprise a secondsolar cell with a substrate. Interconnections may be formed between thefirst solar cell portion and the second solar cell from a side of thefirst solar cell portion from which the first substrate is removed.

The first device portion may comprise a semiconductor device havingactive elements and the first element may comprise one of a substrateused for thermal spreading, impedance matching or for RF isolation, anantenna, and a matching network comprised of passive elements. The firstdevice portion may have a first side an opposing second side, aninterconnections may be made to the device portion from either the firstside or the second side. A shielding member or an isolation member maybe directly bonded to one of the first device portion and the firstelement. An antenna may be directly bonded to one of the first deviceportion and the first device element and interconnections may be madebetween the antenna and at least one of the first device portion and thefirst element.

The first device portion may comprise an optical device and the firstelement may comprise an electrical device. The first element may alsocomprise a lower-speed higher-density semiconductor device and the firstdevice portion may comprise a higher-speed lower-density semiconductordevice.

The integrated device according to the invention may also include aplurality of first elements each directly bonded to a surface of asubstrate, to form a second element, and a third element directly bondedto the second element from a side on which the first elements are bondedto the surface of the substrate. Interconnections may be made betweenthe third element and selected ones of the plurality of first elements,and interconnections may be formed between selected ones of the firstelements. The first elements may be disposed in recesses formed in thesubstrate.

As another embodiment, the device according to the invention may includea device portion containing semiconductor devices having opposing topand bottom sides, a first substrate directly bonded to the top side ofthe device portion and a second substrate directly bonded to the bottomside of the device portions. Interconnections may be formed to thedevice portions through either or both of the first and secondsubstrates. Power and ground connections may be formed to the deviceportions through only one of the first and second device substrates, andsignal and clock interconnections may be formed to the device portionsthrough the other of the first and second substrates.

The integrated device according to the invention may also include aplurality of first elements each directly bonded to a surface of asecond element. The first elements and the second element may include atleast one of semiconductor devices, patterned conductors, antennaelements and impedance matching elements. Vias may be formed in thefirst elements, and conductive material may be formed in the vias tointerconnect the first elements with the second element.

The device according to the invention may also include a first bondingmaterial disposed on a first semiconductor device and a second bondingmaterial disposed on a first element. The first and second bondingmaterials are directly bonded. A conductive array may be disposed on aexposed surface of the first element having a plurality of conductiveregions, and interconnections may be formed between the conductiveregions of the array and conductive regions of the semiconductor device.The conductive array may comprise a pin grid array. The secondconductive regions may be mated with conductive regions formed on atleast one of a board, card and substrate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the invention and many of the attendantadvantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes betterunderstood by reference to the following detailed description whenconsidered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a sectional diagram illustrating a step in the methodaccording to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional diagram illustrating a step in the methodaccording to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a sectional diagram illustrating bonding two substratesaccording to the invention;

FIG. 4 is a sectional diagram a bonded device according to theinvention;

FIG. 5 is a sectional diagram of a heterojunction bipolar transistor;

FIG. 6 is a sectional diagram illustrating bonding the transistor ofFIG. 4 according to the invention;

FIG. 7 is a sectional diagram of a bonded device according to theinvention;

FIG. 8 is a sectional diagram illustrating a step in bonding togethertwo devices according to the invention;

FIG. 9 is a sectional diagram illustrating a step in bonding togethertwo devices according to the invention;

FIG. 10 is a sectional diagram illustrating two devices bonded accordingto the invention;

FIGS. 11A and 11B are sectional diagrams of two devices to be bondedaccording to the invention;

FIG. 12 is a sectional diagram illustrating bonding of the devices ofFIGS. 11A and 11B;

FIG. 13 is a sectional diagram illustrating a step of interconnectingthe devices of FIGS. 11A and 11B;

FIG. 14 is a sectional diagram illustrating a step of bonding the bondeddevices of FIGS. 11A and 11B to another device;

FIG. 15 is a sectional diagram illustrating bonding and interconnectingthree devices;

FIGS. 16A-16D are diagrams illustrating bonding three integratedcircuits;

FIG. 17A is a diagram of a layered interconnect structure;

FIG. 17B is a diagram of bonding the layered interconnect structure ofFIG. 17A to an substrate having integrated circuits;

FIG. 18 is a diagram of a 2-D array of circuit elements;

FIG. 19 is a diagram of bonded and interconnected 2-D arrays of circuitelements;

FIGS. 20A-20F are diagrams illustrating the integration method accordingto the invention;

FIG. 21 is an exploded view of an device integrated according to theinvention;

FIG. 22A is a diagram illustrating backside packing;

FIG. 22B is a diagram illustrating top side packing;

FIGS. 23-34 are cross-sectional diagrams of a method of integrated solarcells according to the invention;

FIGS. 35 and 36 are diagrams of integrating devices with voids;

FIGS. 37A-37H are diagrams illustrating bonding plural dies or devicesto a substrate according to the invention;

FIGS. 38A and 38B are diagrams illustrating connecting a bonded deviceto a circuit board or package;

FIGS. 39A-39J are diagrams illustrating connecting smaller dies to anunderlying substrate; and

FIGS. 40A-40C are diagrams illustrating connecting smaller dies to anunderlying substrate.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1 whichillustrates a first embodiment of the method and device according to theinvention. A substrate 10 has a upper surface 11 having a surfaceplanarity. Substrate 10 preferably is a surrogate substrate or anintegrated circuit wafer. The non-planarity of surface 11 shown in FIG.1 is for illustrative purposes and is not meant to depict exact surfaceplanarity conditions. Substrate 10 preferably has a relatively smoothand planar surface 11. The desired smoothness and planarity of the uppersurface may be achieved through polishing. Chemical-mechanical polishingor CMP is one manner of achieving the desired smoothness and planarity.The CMP process is optimized with appropriate selection of polishingpads, polishing slurries and polishing conditions to obtain the desiredsurface roughness and planarity.

On surface 11 is deposited a film 12 having a thickness greater than thesurface non-planarity of surface 11. Film 12 should have good thermalconductivity and a high dielectric constant, such as SiO₂, diamond ordiamond-like carbon (DLC). Thermal conductivities in the range of 1-10W/cmK and relative dielectric constants in the range of 1-3 arepreferable. A preferable range of thickness for film 11 is from 1-10times the surface non-planarity of film 11. The upper surface 13 of film13 is then polished to a planar surface with a roughness of 5-15 Å andpreferably between 5-10 Å. A planar surface with a roughness of 5 Å ismost preferred as a smoother planar surface will enhance the bondingproperties of the film.

It is also possible to deposit film 12, polish upper surface 13, andthen deposit another film (14 in FIG. 2), and polish the second film, toachieve the desired smoothness of the upper surface (15 in FIG. 2).Three or more films, repeating the depositing and polishing operationsfor each or for at least the upper film, may be used to achieve thedesired surface roughness and planarity.

The substrate 10 is now ready for wafer bonding. Any type of substratemay be bonded to substrate 10. Referring to FIG. 3, a substrate 16,preferably an integrated circuit wafer containing active devices, isprepared in the same manner as substrate 10 by forming a film 17 havingan exposed surface 18 with a surface roughness in the same range assurface 13 of film 12 (or surface 15 of film 14). A higher degree ofplanarity will further facilitate the bonding process. Film 17 may beformed of one or more layers with one or more polishing operations, asdescribed above. Surfaces 18 and 12 are brought into contact with eachother (shown by the arrows in FIG. 3). A bond between surfaces 18 and 13is formed (FIG. 4). With combinations of flattening, smoothing,cleaning, activating and passivating surfaces, a strong bond such ascovalent maybe formed. Initially, a part of the surfaces are broughtinto contact, initiating a weaker bond, such as a Van der Waals bond.The stronger bond then can form. Activation may be done through dry orwet processing, ion implantation, or a combination thereof. A strongerbond can be achieved by subsequently heating the joined substrates andfilms.

This provides the preferred manner of bonding which is direct bondingwithout the use of applied pressure, voltage or heating. Bonding inambient temperature and pressure is preferred. The bonding also ispreferably performed by bringing the bonding surfaces in contact witheach other, without applied pressure, voltage or heating, or the use ofadhesives or molding material. It the substrate has an upper surface ofSiO₂ (or other bonding material), one can polish that surface withoutdepositing another SiO₂ layer, assuming that the upper surface of SiO₂has sufficient thickness to obtain a sufficient surface roughness andplanarity with, e.g., CMP.

EXAMPLE

This example uses the case of attachment of a diamond substrate to amaterial such as GaAs, InP, or GaN when optimal thermal packaging anddielectric performance are desired. Bonding to a substrate of a materialhaving a high thermal conductivity allows one to better manage thermaltransfer. The diamond substrate, after preparing it for bonding, has arelatively smooth upper surface. As diamond substrates typically have arelatively rough surface, a relatively smooth and planar upper surfacemay be obtained by polishing. Polishing may be expensive and difficultto consistently obtain very smooth surfaces. It is also possible to formthe diamond substrate on a copper susceptor. Diamond films typically“pop-off” the copper susceptor after deposition as the temperature islowered, leaving a relatively smooth and planar surface where growthinitiated and a rougher surface where growth terminated.

On top of the upper surface is deposited a thin layer of silicondioxide. The silicon dioxide layer should be thicker than thenon-planarity of the diamond surface, e.g., 1-10 times, but as thin aspossible to optimize performance. The silicon dioxide layer is thenpolished to a smooth surface suitable for wafer bonding, for example, 5Å. The diamond substrate having the thin silicon layer is now ready forwafer bonding.

At this point any type of device formed on any type of substrate may bebonded to the surface of silicon dioxide layer. For this example, aheterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), as described in applicationSer. No. 09/165,203, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference, may be used. The HBT is processed to the point where it isready for attachment of a surrogate substrate, as shown in FIG. 5.Typically, this would include the steps of forming the emittermetallization, performing base etching, applying base metallization,applying a passivation/planarization level and applying a thermal shunt.In FIG. 5 there is collector layer 22 formed on a GaAs substrate 20,planarizing material 21, base region 23, base contacts 24, emitter 25and emitter contact 26. It should be noted that FIG. 5, whileillustrating a single device, is not so limited. A wafer containing anumber of devices or an integrated circuit may also be bonded in thesame manner.

On top of the planarized surface of the HBT is deposited another verythin layer of silicon dioxide 27. The thickness of silicon dioxide layer27 is thicker than the non-planarity of the planarized surface of theHBT (e.g., 1-10 times) but as thin as possible to optimize performance.The surface of the silicon dioxide layer 27 is polished to a smoothnesssufficient for wafer bonding, for example 5 Å. Layers 27 and 12 are thenbonded by placing them in close proximity. The surfaces are preferablyplaced in close proximity after a wet cleaning process, followed by adrying operation to force the liquid from between the layers 27 and 12.A Van der Waals bond is formed. A stronger bond can be achieved bysubsequently heating joined layers 27 and 12.

When layers 12 and 27 are heated after joining, stress may be generatedwhich lead to some deleterious effects in the formed device andsurrogate substrate. It is possible to form a stress-relieving layerbetween the diamond substrate and silicon dioxide layer and between theHBT device and silicon dioxide layer 27. This is illustrated as films 28and 29 in FIG. 6. The stress relieving layer is a homogeneous orcomposite layer with material, i.e., Young's modulus, such that thislayer will yield the application of stress before other layers.

While the bonding has been described using a silicon dioxide filmpolished to a desired surface roughness, other films are possible. Forexample, silicon or DLC may also be used. In the case of silicon, oxygenmay be implanted into the bonding layers below their respective surfacesto form a compliant layer. The compliant layer is a layer equivalent tothe stress-relieving layer. One would prefer to use a Si, SiC or DLCfilm versus an SiO₂ film, when, for example, improved thermalconductivity is desired.

It is also possible to choose the passivation/planarization material inthe device being bonded to optimize the dielectric constant, thermalconductivity and resistivity adjacent to the active device. Inparticular, DLC is effective due to its relatively high thermalconductivity and low dielectric constant compared to other materials.

As shown in FIG. 5, the HBT device 14 typically is formed on substrate20. After bonding the device to substrate 10, substrate 20 can beremoved through a process such as polishing, or grinding and polishing,allowing access to backside contacts.

In a second embodiment of the invention, N 2D arrays of devices arebonded together by repeating the method described in the firstembodiment N times. Starting with the bonded device shown in FIG. 7 (theHBT device is shown without the component detail as 30), the substrate20 is removed and the exposed surface of device 30 is polished, ifnecessary, to a level of smoothness advantageous for wafer bonding.Polishing and grinding may be used during the removal of substrate 20.Another layer of silicon dioxide 31 is deposited on the exposed surfaceof device 30 and polished to the desired surface roughness, in a manneras described above for layers 12 or 27 (FIG. 8).

A next wafer, shown without the device details as 32 with substrate 34in FIG. 9 has a thin layer of silicon dioxide 33 formed on the surfaceopposite substrate 34. Film 33 is formed and polished in the same manneras films 11, 27 and 31. Film 33 is then bonded to the exposed surface oflayer 31. The resulting device is shown in FIG. 10, after removal of thesubstrate 34. The upper surface of the second bonded device may again bepolished, another silicon dioxide layer 35 deposited in preparation forbonding of a third device. This can be N times to produce anN-integrated device. The devices so bonded may be interconnectedvertically.

EXAMPLE

An example of the bonding between multiple devices is shown in FIGS.11A, 11B and 12-15. FIGS. 11A, 11B and 12-15 illustrate how the bondingaccording to the present invention can be used to integrate N 2D arraysof devices, how they can be interconnected to form avertically-integrated multi-wafer module, and how different technologiesmay be joined.

FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate two devices to be bonded. In this example,the devices of FIGS. 11A and 11B are dissimilar integrated circuitwafers having interconnections. In FIG. 11A a symmetric-intrinsic HBT(SIHBT) wafer contains an SIHBT surrogate substrate 40, planarizingmaterial 41 formed on substrate 40, SIHBT device 43 and interconnects 42and 44, preferably formed of a metal. FIG. 11B illustrates a VCSELdevice having a VCSEL substrate 45, planarizing material 46, VCSELdevice 48 and interconnects 47 and 49, again preferably formed of metal.As shown in FIG. 12, the devices of FIGS. 11A and 11B are bonded in themethod as described above, that is, a material such as silicon dioxideis deposited on the upper surface of each device and then polished to asurface roughness of about 5-10 Å. A high degree of planarity is alsodesirable. The bonded devices are shown in FIG. 12.

Next, as illustrated in FIG. 13, substrate 40 is removed exposinginterconnect 44. A via hole 50 is etched through planarizing material 41and into planarizing material 46 to expose a portion of interconnect 47.While one via hole 50 is shown, it is to be understood that any numberof vias may be formed in order to make the appropriate connection(s) tothe devices in the two bonded substrates.

Interconnect 51 is formed in via hole 50 interconnecting the devices 43and 48. At this point the process could be stopped if only two waferswere required to be bonded. If one or more devices need to be furtherintegrated, the process may continue by forming a bonding layer 52 madeof, for example, silicon dioxide, which is then polished to a surfaceroughness of 5-10 Å, in the same manner as described above. In thiscase, the process may include a step of filling any cavity formed ininterconnect 50 to more easily produce a smooth surface of layer 52. Thedevice, as shown in FIG. 14 is now ready to be bonded with anotherwafer, if desired.

For the wafers of different technologies, the planarizing material maybe the same. The two different technologies that are separated by thelayers of planarizing material do not interact. Each only interacts withthe planarizing material. Since the properties of the planarizingmaterial are both well known and are commonly used in current processes,no new materials are needed to combine the technologies. The inventionprovides a very manufacturable manner of combining differenttechnologies.

Moreover, all of the customization takes place at the end of theprocessing. Both wafers are separately manufactured and then bonded. Theinterconnection is performed after the bonding. Customization ofcombined technologies takes place at the end of the process. Whatevertechnology one needs may be obtained, and these technologies may bethose that are readily and commercially available. The need fordesigning a new process is eliminated. More control over the finalcombined product is possible as well-defined and devices fabricated witha stable process may be selected for combining, unlike a new,unqualified combined process where little manufacturing, reliability orlonger term information is available.

The bonding of a third wafer to the structure of FIG. 14 is illustratedin FIG. 15. It is noted that FIG. 15 illustrates an additionalmetallization 53 formed by etching planarizing material 41 and 46 toexpose a portion of interconnect 60 of another device having elements60-62. Interconnect 53 has an extended portion on the surface ofplanarizing material 41 to facilitate interconnection on another level.The device in the third wafer in this case can be a CMOS device 56having interconnects 55 and 57. Another via is etched throughplanarizing material 58 and through bonding material 52, exposing aportion of interconnect 51 to allow connection with interconnect 59.Interconnect 59 is also connected with interconnect 55 of CMOS device56. Another interconnect 54 is formed by etching a via through materials58 and 52 to expose a portion of interconnect 53. An interconnect 54 isformed to contact interconnect 53. It should be noted that FIG. 15 doesnot explicitly show the bonding layers formed between the devices but isto be understood that these are the devices that are formed using theprocess described above in connection with the first embodiment.

What is also apparent from FIG. 15 is that the present inventionutilizes both sides of a contact. For example, if the pad at the top ofcontact 51 is a contact pad or a metal line, then the bottom surface ofthe pad (or line) is connected with interconnect 47 lying under the pad(or line) while the top of the pad (or line) is connected with contact59 overlapping with interconnect 55. This can reduce drive requirements.

FIG. 15 also illustrates the advantage of the invention of not beingconstrained to one layer (or possibly two layers) for circuittopography. One has the ability to design three dimensionally. Circuitlayouts can be optimized if one is given the ability to separate a typeor class of device from others where either the functioning orprocessing interferes or is incompatible. Circuit layouts are minimizedin area since three dimensions are used instead of only two. Forexample, three conventional chips of nominally the same area withoptionally different technologies can be implemented in one third thearea by stacking vertically. The area reduction is even greater if oneconsiders the reduced packaging requirements of the individual chips vs.the stacked chips. Stacking vertically is also conducive to theinsertion of ground, bias, or other planes between chips or within achip for improved signal isolation during routing.

Typically, in a system signals are amplified and then transmitted overbuses between integrated circuits. This requires a lot oflevel-shifting, buses and compensation for various differences in signallevels amongst the elements making up the system. As one example, apixel in a light detecting device receives a very small packet of chargewhich is then shifted out of the device and into a memory device. Thelight detecting device and the memory in this case may both be separateintegrated circuits, requiring amplification of the charge packetthrough buffers and system buses between the pixel and memory device.The signal levels are then shifted down in order to store theinformation in a memory cell in the memory device. When the informationin the memory is needed to be processed, the information is thenlevel-shifted again using more buffers and system buses to transmit thedata over to a processor, which also may be formed using a separateintegrated circuit. The power levels for the various signals aredetermined by the interconnection and the buses.

The present invention allows one to obtain element-to-elementcommunication and addressability. In the present, the power levels ofsignals may be determined by the element, and not the interconnect,i.e., the system buses and drivers. As an example, as shown in FIG.16A-16D, a first integrated circuit consisting of an array of pixels forsensing a light signal, etc. is fabricated on a first substrate (FIG.16A). In simplified fashion, a pixel 72 is formed in a semiconductorlayer 71, which is formed on a substrate 70. On a second substrate isfabricated the memory device needed to store the information when it isshifted out of the pixel array, and is shown in FIG. 16B. Asemiconductor layer 74 is formed on a substrate 73. Memory cells 75 areformed in layer 74. Lastly, a processor device for processing theinformation is manufactured on a third substrate shown in FIG. 16C.Various elements 78 are shown (in simplified form) in layer 77 formed onsubstrate 76. Each of the substrates may then be bonded together (withthe pixel array on top in order to expose it to the light).

The three substrates may be bonded together. A surrogate substrate (notshown) may be attached to an upper surface of layer 71 using thetechniques described above, and substrate 70 removed. The upper surfaceof layer 74 of the memory device is then bonded to the surface exposedby removing substrate 70. Substrate 73 may then be removed, and theupper surface of layer 77 is bonded to the surface exposed by removingsubstrate 73. The surrogate substrate may be removed to expose thepixels 72. The interconnections may be made directly between the threesubstrates, in the manner discussed above, eliminating the need for thenumerous buffers and system buses required to interconnect the systemwhen the system is designed using separate integrated devices. Thebonded circuit is shown in FIG. 16D. It should be noted that FIG. 16Ddoes not illustrate the various layers used to bond the differentdevices, and that portions of the layers 71, 74, and 77 may be removedduring the removal of the corresponding substrates, as desired.

Another example would be a typical microprocessor where themicroprocessor contains a certain amount of on-board ROM while a largeramount of storage is accessed via system buses on a separate RAM. Inthis case, the processor with the on-board ROM may be fabricated on afirst substrate and the memory may be fabricated on a second substrate.The two substrates are to be bonded together and the processor directlybonded to the memory device, again eliminating the need for systembuses, level shifters and other buffers.

The present invention not only allows the fabrication of systems in amore compact and directly accessible manner, but also allows a smallerfootprint. Each of the separate devices described above would take up atleast three times the amount of space compared to the present inventionthey are stacked upon each other, assuming chips of about the same size.

A fourth embodiment of the invention uses the techniques described aboveto create the interconnect separately from the underlying integratedcircuit. Typically, circuits require a number of levels of interconnectin order to provide all the complex functions required. Six or morelevels of interconnect may be needed. This requires a significant amountof thermal processing, exposing the underlying active devices to higherthermal budgets and complicating the fabricating process. The presentinvention may be used to fabricate the active devices separately andthen forming layers of interconnect by bonding according to the presentinvention. In particular, each level of interconnect may be formed onseparate substrates, then bonded together and interconnected as needed.Several or all of the interconnect layers may be fabricated at one time.The bonded together or single interconnected substrate may then bebonded to the substrate having the active devices. Techniques similar tothose described above for interconnecting the different wafers shown inFIG. 15 may be employed. When finished, the stack of interconnectedlayers may be bonded to the active devices.

This is illustrated in FIGS. 17A and 17B, where a stack of interconnecthaving layers 80-83 is bonded according to the principles of theinvention and shown in FIG. 17A is then bonded to the integrated circuitshown in FIG. 16B or 16C. FIG. 17B shows the completed device with thelayers used in the bonding process omitted for clarity. In this case,the substrate of the integrated circuit may be removed and bonded to amore favorable thermal material, such as diamond-like carbon. With thisembodiment, one can obtain tighter processing control by not having tocompensate or make compromises for the various effects of the increasedthermal budget due to the typical processing of the multiple layers ofintegrated circuit interconnection on top of the active devices.

Another application of the invention is the selection of theinterconnect layers. By being able to separately process theinterconnect, more design flexibility may by obtained. Certain layers,for example those handling high speed signals, may be more critical thanothers. The critical levels may be separated from each other by othernon-critical layers to minimize overlap. Conversely, non-critical layersmay be put in adjacent layers when the overlap is not a problem for highspeed operation of the device.

Apparent from the above embodiments, the substrate of the integratedcircuits may be completely removed in the above embodiments. The resultis a 2-D array of device elements immersed in insulative planarizingmaterial. One example of this is shown in FIG. 18. Each of the elementsmay be completely isolated from every other element, i.e., a 2-D arrayof devices as opposed to a circuit layer. A second wafer to be bondedmay be processed in the same way, giving another 2-D array of deviceelements. The arrays of devices may then be interconnected in a desiredmanner to create circuits, subcircuits, etc. This can be extended tobonding different technologies together, for example, CMOS and bipolar,to create a BiCMOS wafer. In this case the most advanced CMOS andbipolar technologies may be combined since the two wafers are separatelyprocessed. One can then, when needing to create a combined technologydevice or circuit, use existing advanced, qualified technologies ratherthan having to design a new combined process or settle for an existingcombined technology which does not use and cannot take advantage of themost advanced technologies or evolutions in technologies.

Third wafer and subsequent wafers may also be processed where thesubstrate is removed to create a 2-D array of devices ready to beinterconnected to the first and second arrays. The third device may beyet another technology. FIG. 19 gives an example.

The wafer bonding may consist of bonding an integrated circuit or deviceto another substrate used for thermal spreading, impedance matching orfor RF isolation, an antenna, or a matching network comprised of passiveelements. Combinations of these elements may also be integrated. Partialor complete substrate removal may be included in this embodiment. Thecircuit or device may be interconnected with the antenna, spreader orother element.

An integrated T/R module may also be manufactured where a MEMs on onesubstrate is integrated with an output transmit power amplifier onanother wafer. An input receive wafer may be integrated on the secondwafer or on a third wafer. Appropriate shielding or isolation may alsobe integrated in the module, as well as an antenna formed on a wafer.

Optical devices, such as lasers and detectors, on one wafer may beintegrated with optical interconnect circuits on another wafer. Theelements ate integrated to a sufficient fraction of a wavelength tooperate as lumped elements so that impedance mismatch between thedevices does not cause significant reflection or loss of power. Theresulting optical configuration made possible with the inventionoperates at high speed due to low parasitics, and at low power due toavoiding the impedance mismatch problem limiting conventional opticalI/O configurations.

The wafer bonding may also follow from FIGS. 3 and 4 where wafer 10 is adevice or circuit wafer and wafer 16 is a support and packaging materialas follows. This particular description is of particular interest as apackaging technology that provides improved thermal performance,improved noise performance, separation of power, ground, clock, and/orsignal lines, improved radiation performance, reduce resistance,capacitance, and inductance, increase power to ground coupling, to namea few. After bonding, the substrate from the device or circuit wafer issubstantially thinned or completely removed. The remaining portion ofthe substrate may be no more than 10 to 20 μm. Additional processing mayproceed on the remaining silicon substrate or “backside” or,alternatively, if the substrate is completely removed, on the “backside”of the layer containing active devices.

For example, vias can be made to the underneath side of “pads” made onthe “frontside” of the wafer. These “pads” may be optimally designed forthis purpose and thus have a significantly different configuration froma typical pad. For example, this pad may essentially be a via, that isstarted on the frontside processing of the wafer, and interconnectedfrom the back. An example of this is shown in figure in FIG. 20A wherebase contact 90 has a via structure extending to the backside of thedevice now exposed through removal of the substrate. FIG. 20B shows anextended metal contact 90A accessible through an appropriately placedvia.

There are various types of vias that can be formed. For example, viascan be formed on the “top” interconnect level, a “lower”, or a “first”interconnect level next to the devices, or directly to the active devicefrom the backside. After these different types of vias are made, aninterconnect can be formed in the via, thus interconnecting any level ofinterconnect made on the frontside of the wafer or the active devicesdirectly. Additional levels of metallization may also be formed on the“backside” similar to the multiple interconnect levels formed on the“frontside.” After this “backside” processing is completed, the wafercan be diced and packaged according to typical methods like wire bondingand ball grid array.

This configuration allows routing of power, ground, clock, and signalson either or both sides of the active device layer. For example, powerand ground can be routed on one side and ground, clock, and signals canbe routed on the other. Other configurations are possible, and acombination of configurations can be used as desired. This configurationallows reduced resistance, inductance, and capacitance, and allowsinteraction between different types of interconnects to be minimized,for example power and signal, or maximized, i.e., power and ground, asdesired.

An example is shown in FIG. 20C. It should be noted that the dimensionsshown in FIG. 20C (and other figures) are not drawn to scale but havebeen drawn for the purpose of illustrating the invention. The dimensionsshown are not meant to limit the invention. A pair of devices 105 and106 are interconnected with other circuit elements (not shown) via anumber of interconnect layers 93-95. The device is bonded to material 92which can be used as the die attach. Via 102 is filled with interconnect101 connected to a “top” level interconnect layer 93. Via 100 is filledwith interconnect 99 connected to one of intermediate interconnectlayers 94. Via 96 is formed through layer 103 to connect device region104 with interconnect 97. Layer 103 may be the remainder of a nativesubstrate substantially thinned or, if the native substrate iscompletely removed, a layer between native substrate and devices 105 and106 or a layer formed on devices 105 and 106 after substrate removal.While not labeled the material separating the various interconnectlayers is understood to be a insulating material.

Another example is shown in FIG. 20D where two devices 180 and 181 areconnected from both sides through substrates 185 and 187 to which thedevices are bonded. Interconnects 182, 188 and 189 are formed throughsubstrate 185 and interconnects 183 and 184 are formed through substrate186. Substrates 185 and 186 and devices may include a planarizationlayer for bonding as described previously.

It should also be noted that the vias made to the various levels maypass through semiconductor material. In this case, measures such asoxidizing the exposed semiconductive material in the vias before fillingmay need to be taken. Also, the device may be formed on an insulativesubstrate with the areas through which the vias are formed beingentirely insulative. This may be accomplished, for example, by fullyoxidizing the semiconductive material in these areas through which thevias pass, by completely etching away the semiconductor material andrefilling with insulative material, or a combination of the two.

Note that a thermal spreader material can also be used as the die attachmaterial 92. It can further be a composite material. The composition maybe optimized, for example, it may contain mostly copper where it will bebonded to the die, and may contain another material conducive to dieseparation where it will be bonded to the streets between die.

This configuration further provides improved thermal impedance comparedto a conventional package. For example, typical packaging has thesilicon substrate between the active device layer that generates heatand the die attach to the package. The silicon is typically ˜600microns, but is also typically thinned to ˜300 microns. There is a limitto the thinning in production determined by breakage. Heat generated inthe active layer typically conducts through the ˜300 micron substrate toa copper heat spreader, or a similar thermal conductivity material andfrom there to a heat sink to ambient. This heat spreader material istypically ˜24 mils thick or ˜600 microns. Since the thermal conductivityof the copper is about 3 times that of the silicon, more than half thetemperature rise in the part is accommodated in the silicon substrate.

In an alternate wafer bonding configuration, where material 92 is acopper-like material of similar thickness to the conventional plug, thetemperature rise is reduced by more than half because the temperaturedrop across the planarization material is negligible compared to thetemperature drop across the silicon substrate for appropriateplanarization materials and thickness. Examples of appropriateplanarization materials and thicknesses are 0.5 microns of silicondioxide and 5 microns of silicon nitride.

Note that a much larger reduction in temperature rise is obtained if theheat sink efficiency is such that the copper heat spreader can beomitted without causing a significant rise in heat sink temperature. Inthis case, the temperature drop across ˜two microns of silicon nitrideis about one tenth the temperature drop across 300 microns of siliconfor the same heat flow, resulting in about one tenth the temperaturerise of the part.

Further improvement in thermal impedance can be obtained by waferbonding a second packaging material on the backside of the device orcircuit wafer after the substrate is substantially thinned or completelyremoved, as shown in FIG. 20E. Substrate 103 in this example has beencompletely removed and a second packaging material 107 is bonded to thesurface exposed by the substrate removal. Substrates 92 and 107 may bechosen to have high thermal conductivity, to more effectively spread andremove heat from the device. Access to layers 93-95 or to the activedevices themselves may by made through one or both substrates 92 and107, depending upon the type of interconnecting or packaging scheme.

The bonding of substrate 107 may also be done after further backsideprocessing, an example of which is provided above. This replacement ofthe silicon substrate with an alternate material reduces the thermalimpedance accordingly. When used in conjunction with the heat removalfrom the frontside as described above, the thermal impedance is furtherimproved. Heat sinks can be applied to front and back surfaces, or thefront and back packaging materials can be thermally shunted with anappropriate material.

This sandwiching of the device or circuit wafer with appropriatematerial is most preferred when used in conjunction with ball grid arraypackaging technology, or an alternate packaging technology that does notuse ball grid array, but uses an alternate areal contacting method insubsequent assembly. FIG. 20F shows interconnecting the structure ofFIG. 20E to the interconnect levels using a ball grid array with ballsor bumps 109 and underbump metallization 108. The ball grid array methodcan be straightforwardly applied to this description by forminginterconnects through the packaging material to the desired connectionpoints, followed by appropriate underbump metallization and ball gridformation.

An example of a packaging technology that does not use a ball grid arrayis given in 20G. This example uses a pin grid array 201. This array isformed in substrate 92 and includes interconnection 202 between pin gridarray 201 and layers 93-95. Pins subsequently can be pressed into aboard, card, substrate, or other subassembly. This assembly methodeliminates the need for solder bumps, underfill, etc. typically used inadvanced packaging. Alternatively, the exposed surface of 92 may beformed with exposed contact regions 203 that are interconnected tolayers 93-95, that may be subsequently pressed onto a pin grid arrayformed on a board, card, substrate, or other subassembly.

This packaging method and device are also robust to thermal stress. Theremoval of essentially all silicon except that in the active deviceregion, allows significantly greater compliance of the remaining siliconwith respect to the packaging material. Further compliance of thesilicon can be obtained by etching or removing all the silicon betweenthe die after the substrate is thinned or completely removed. Thegreatest compliance is obtained by removing all silicon except whereeach active device is after thinning or completely removing thesubstrate. In this case, the silicon devices are not connected withsilicon, but rather with planarization material and interconnectmetallization. Intermediate amounts of silicon removal are alsopossible.

This configuration results in reduced stress and improved reliabilitycompared to typical methods. Appropriate choice of packaging materialand/or material to which the die will be further attached to obtain anacceptable strain, results in further reduced stress and improvedreliability from typical methods like ball grid array that suffer straininduced failures.

The wafer bonding may combine such elements with other components tocreate a system or a functional component of a system. FIG. 21 shows anexploded view of an system integrated according to the invention. Inthis system a high-density lower-speed device 151 is integrated with ahigh-speed lower-density device 153. Other elements, such as passiveelements including thermal spreaders, isolation layers and antennas maybe included.

On a substrate 150 is bonded a remaining portion of a wafer 151 having ahigh-density lower-speed silicon integrated circuit having elements 155and interconnections 156. An example of such a device is a gate array.The substrate of wafer 151 has been removed, in the manner discussedabove, and wafer 150 may be a thermal spreader. A low-density high-speeddevice 153, such as an HBT device (shown after substrate removal) isbonded to an insulating substrate 152 which has been bonded to wafer151. Substrate 152 may have electrical as well as thermal insulativeproperties, and may also be a thermal spreader made of, for example,diamond or diamond-like carbon. Vias are formed (not shown) in substrate152 to allow connection between the silicon device in wafer 151 and theHBTs in wafer 153. On wafer 153 is bonded an packaging substrate 154having contact pads 159. Alternatively, substrate 154 may be an antennawith patch antennas 159 to receive signals for input to the HBTs.Interconnects (also not shown) are formed between substrate 154 anddevices on the HBT wafer, and between substrate 159 and wafer 151, ifdesired or needed.

Another system that may be formed is a microprocessor with a highdensity of embedded memory. A microprocessor on one wafer (such as 10)may be bonded and interconnected with a second wafer (such as 16). Thisconfiguration enables a significant increase in the bit width whileproviding an increased communication rate between the processor andmemory elements by reducing parasitics. Power consumption is alsoreduced by eliminating I/O drivers and level shifting between theprocessor and memory. The configuration further allows an increase inmemory compared to the conventional approach of embedded memory withinthe chip. Further, the processor and memory design and manufacturingprocesses may be respectively optimized to produce a combination ofoptimally designed and fabricated devices free from design andprocessing compromises resulting from being manufactured on the samewafer or having to interconnect the two devices at the board level.

The wafer bonding may also include bonding a substrate primarily formechanical support to a device or circuit wafer. This can be seen inFIGS. 3 and 4 where wafer 10 is a device or circuit wafer and element 16is a support substrate. The substrate of the device or circuit wafer 10is then partially or completely removed and the wafer may be packaged byconnecting to the “backside” of the wafer from where the substrate hasbeen removed. For example, FIG. 14 shows wafer 41 from which substrate40 has been removed and interconnect 51 has been formed. As shown inFIG. 22A, wafer 41 is mounted in a package 113 (shown in simplifiedmanner to illustrate the invention). Film 52 of wafer 41 was removed toexpose interconnect 51. On interconnect 51 is formed a bonding pad 110,which is connected to package pad 112 by a wire 113. Connections to theother device terminals are not shown. Other packaging arrangements, suchas flip-chip mounting, are possible. It is also possible to integratethree or more elements or wafers, including a multi-layer interconnect.These methods and devices may also comprise the omission of elements 46and/or 45.

In another example, a device or circuit wafer is bonded to a firstsubstrate and the substrate of the device or circuit wafer is removed. Asecond substrate having preferred thermal, isolation and/or mechanicalproperties is then bonded to the side of the device or circuit waferexposed after the substrate removal. The first substrate is then removedexposing the “top” side of the device or circuit wafer. Starting withthe device shown in FIG. 6, substrate 20 is removed and a secondsubstrate 115 is bonded to the backside of the HBT device. Substrate 10is then removed to expose the top side of the HBT device. The integrateddevice may then be mounted in a package 116, as shown in FIG. 22B. Oncontact 26 is formed a bonding pad 117. Pad 117 is connected to packagepad 119 via wire 117. Connections to the other device terminals are notshown. Other packaging arrangements are possible, such as using a devicehaving a multi-layer interconnect bonded thereto, and flip-chipmounting.

Stacked solar cells may also be integrated according to the invention.In FIG. 23 a first solar cell 120 is shown in cross-section. Solar cell120 contains back contact 121, substrate 122, active area 123 and topcontact 124. Cell 120 is then planarized with a bonding material 125polished to a high degree of planarity and smoothness (FIG. 24), in themanner discussed in the first embodiment. Back contact 121 may also beomitted for subsequent formation after substrate 122 is substantiallythinned or removed.

A second cell 126 is prepared, having substrate 127, active area 128 andcontacts 129 (FIG. 25). In FIG. 26, bonding material 130 is deposited oncell 126 and planarized in the manner discussed in the first embodiment.Cells 120 and 126 are bonded and the substrate of cell 126 is removedby, for example, lapping and polishing, as shown in FIG. 27. Vias131-133 are formed to expose portions of contacts 124 and 129 (FIG. 28),interconnects 134 are formed in the vias (FIG. 29) and contacts 135 areformed to the second cell (FIG. 30).

The solar cells integrated according to the invention have increasedefficiency while maintaining a high degree of optical transparencybetween cells. Low interconnect resistance and high mechanical strengthare also achieved. The stacking shown in this example reduces thecontact area by about half which is acceptable for a typical contact(<10⁻⁵ ohms-cm²) and interconnect resistance (<10⁻⁶ ohm-cm²). Bothsingle junction and tandem junction cells may be stacked using theinvention. The mechanical stacking made possible with the inventionavoids integration with epitaxial techniques which introduce latticematch growth limitations associated with tandem or cascade cells. Itfurther provides improved mechanical strength compared to othermechanically stacked solar cells and is mechanically compliant totemperature variations due to the substantial or complete substrateremoval. Optimum compliance is obtained by removal of the active layerbetween cells on a substrate, and/or by designing the via andinterconnect pattern to appropriately reduce the area of the continuousactive layer across the entire substrate area in a manner similar tothat described previously for packaging.

More cells can be stacked using the invention. As shown in FIG. 31,bonding material 136 is formed over the cells stacked in FIG. 30, andplanarized in the manner described above. A third cell having planarizedbonding material 137, contacts 138 and substrate 139 is bonded onmaterial 136 (FIG. 32) and vias 140 are formed (FIG. 33). Contacts 141and 142 are then formed (FIG. 34).

FIGS. 35 and 36 show another aspect of the invention where a void 144 isformed in one wafer 143 before or after surface planarization.Subsequent bonding to a second wafer 145 creates an intentional voidnear the bonding interface 146. The void may be a via for laterconnection to devices located in wafer 143.

The integration method according to the invention may further includethe bonding of wafers, die, surfaces, etc., of dissimilar areas.Examples of how this may be accomplished include first, the attachmentof small areas to a larger area followed by bonding of the larger areato another larger area or, second, bonding of small areas to largerareas are described below.

For example, in the first approach it may be desired to integrate anoptical device(s) with an electrical circuit to realize electronics withoptical input/output (I/O). In this example, the area required for theoptical devices (i.e. vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs),p-i-n photodiodes, etc.) will typically be much less than the arearequired for the electronic circuit. Furthermore, the wafer size wherethe optical devices are fabricated will be typically smaller than thewafer size where the electronic circuits are fabricated. It is thus notpreferable to bond the smaller wafer with a higher area density ofdevices/circuits to the larger wafer with the smaller area density ofdevices/circuits because the electronic circuits would be integratedwith either many more optical devices than needed, or with no opticaldevices.

In a preferable method the die needed to be bonded are separated fromthe smaller wafer by conventional dicing, etc., the separate die areassembled on a carrier wafer of comparable size to the larger wafercontaining electrical devices, and the larger wafer and the carrierwafer are bonded. This is shown in FIG. 37A where smaller dies ordevices 162 are bonded to a substrate 160 with bonding material 161.Substrate removal may then take place, if desired, and interconnectionsbetween the bonded devices may be made using the methods describedabove. Examples of the interconnections are shown in FIGS. 37E-37H anddescribed below. The die separation would preferably be preceded byplanarization of the wafer containing the dies required for waferbonding. The die can also be preferentially tested prior to thisplanarization to assist sorting prior to assembly on a larger wafer.

The assembly of die on a larger wafer can be done in a variety of waysincluding formation of a recess in a specific location that will matewith the other wafer containing electrical devices as desired, as shownin FIG. 37B where in recesses 167 or substrate 163 are bonded devices165 using bonding materials 164 and 166. Other methods are also possibleincluding die attach, etc. For example, bonding materials 164 and 166may be omitted if the die and recess sizes are suitable for a press fit.

After die are assembled on the carrier wafer, the resulting wafer isplanarized for bonding to the larger wafer with electronic devices. Thisplanarization can be facilitated in a manner consistent with the dieassembly. For example, if die are assembled in a recess, the recess canbe formed to match with the die thickness so that the die surfacecorresponds to the larger wafer surface. FIGS. 37C and 37D illustratesthe planarization of the structures shown in FIGS. 37A and 37B,respectively, and bonding to corresponding substrates. In FIG. 37C,wafer 160 with devices or dies 162 are bonded to a substrate 170 usingbonding materials 168 and 169. Wafer 170 preferably contains anelectronic device to which die or devices 162 are to be interconnected.Also, wafer 170 may be a thermal spreader and another substrate may bebonded to devices or die 162 from the other side following removal ofsubstrate 160. FIG. 37D is similar where substrate 163 is bonded tosubstrate 173 using bonding materials 171 and 172.

Connections between the die 162 and the underlying substrate 170 areshown in FIGS. 37E-37G. In FIG. 37E connections between two of the die162 are formed, in the manner described above in connection with FIG.13-14, by depositing a layer of planarizing material 174, forming vias175 and 176 over contacts 177 and 178 in the die 162, and depositingmetal 179 over material 174 and into vias 175 and 176. Another exampleshown in FIG. 37F illustrates making connections between one of thedevices in substrate 170 and devices in the die 162. The substrate(s) ofthe die 162 is (are) removed, as discussed above with respect to FIGS.12 and 13, and a connection 181 is formed between contact 180 of adevice in die 162 and a contact 182 in a device 184 in substrate 183. Athird example shown in FIG. 37G includes depositing a planarizingmaterial 190 over die 162 and substrate 183 having device 184 (only oneshown for brevity), etching and/or polishing material 190, if necessary,to expose a contact 185 in a device in die 162, forming a via 187 inmaterial 182 to expose a contact 189 of device 184, and depositing metalor conductive material 188 to connect contacts 185 and 189. It is notedthat planarizing material 190 could extend over die 162 and another viaopened to expose contact 185.

As discussed above, the substrate may be partially removed leaving aportion in contact with the devices. FIG. 37H illustrates the case wherea portion 191 of the substrate remains after grinding/etching. Contact193 is formed on portion 191 and a via is formed in material 190 toexpose contact 193. Metal 192 connects contact 193 and device 184.

Alternatively, the wafer resulting from die assembly may be bondedwithout planarization of the entire wafer. For example, the die may beassembled such that the die are higher than the wafer they are assembledon and they are essentially at the same height. In this example, thesubsequent bonding will occur primarily where the assembled die are andnot over the entire wafer surface that includes the assembled die.Substrate removal of this wafer after wafer bonding may thus effectivelyresult in separation of die before the die substrate is completelyremoved. After completion of die substrate removal (or substantially allthe substrate), the die can be interconnected to the electronic circuitsas described previously.

Furthermore, according to the second approach described above, a methodsimilar to the first approach can be performed without assembling thesmaller die on the carrier wafer. In this example, the smaller die canbe separately bonded to the larger wafer. After the smaller die areseparately bonded and their substrates are completely or substantiallyremoved, they are interconnected to devices, or circuits as describedpreviously. To facilitate substrate removal in this example, a templateof similar material to the die substrate removal can be attached aroundthe bonded die to produce a preferable surface for substrate removalthat may include grinding, lapping, etc.

This carrier wafer that the smaller die are bonded to may serve otherfunctions than containing electronic circuits as mentioned above. Forexample, the larger wafer may also be used to reroute and interconnectthe smaller die to each other. Other uses are also possible. In thiscase, referring to FIG. 37C as an example, interconnections may be madefrom both sides through wafer 160 to connect the various devices 162,and through substrate 170. Thinning of substrates 160 and 170 may bepreferable to reduce via depths.

FIGS. 38A and 38B illustrate a further method of interconnecting adevice with a circuit board, computer card, mother board, etc. Thedevice can be a device bonded as described above, i.e. a device bondedto a packaging material. The packaging material bonded may havetopography before bonding or have topography made after bonding that thesubsequent via and interconnect can contact. This topography isengineered using common practices to allow a press fit, cold weld, sonicbond, or low temperature thermosonic bond etc., to be formed betweenthis topography and a mother board, integrated circuit board, computercard, etc., that is designed to mate with this topography. Thistopography can be made with etching of the packaging material ordeposition of an additional material. Depending on the quality and typeof materials used, this topography can have a range of aspect ratiosfrom flat to sharply peaked. This topography can exist on the packagingmaterial and/or on the board to which the packaged devices or circuitswill be subsequently attached. This mechanism of attachment does notrely on elevated temperature to reflow materials to make a connection asis done with solder bumps, ball grid arrays, etc. Accordingly,significantly reduced stress and increased reliability can be achieved.This method can also be manufactured with very low cost since thepackaging of the devices or circuits can be done at wafer scale, andsolder bumps do not need to be applied or reflowed to make an assemblyof packaged devices/circuits to board, card, etc.

A more specific example is shown in FIG. 38A. On a top surface of adevice 200 a pin grid array 201 is formed having “pins” 202. The pinsare formed using conventional processing techniques such asmetallization, photolithography, etching, etc. The pins 202 are metallicstructures having a narrowed tip. Pins 202 are designed to mate withcorresponding conductive structures such as metal pads on the circuitboard, computer card, mother board, etc. The narrowed tip providessecure electrical contact with the corresponding board or cardstructures by pressing the pins against the conductive structures. Thepins are shown having a pyramid shape but other shapes are possible. Thepins 202 can be formed as small as in the range of 10 μm in width andhave an aspect ratio on the order of 1:1 to 1:3. It should be noted thatwhile device 200 only shows a few pins 202, typically the device willhave a large number of pins formed in an array, such as a square orrectangular matrix with possibly omitting pins at certain portions ofthe array or matrix.

FIG. 38B shows a board 203 having conductive pads 204, preferably metalpads, formed in a pattern corresponding to the array of pins 202. Asindicated by arrows 205, pins 202 are brought into alignment and arepressed against corresponding ones of the pads 204. It is apparent thatvery small contacts may be formed in an array to allow a great number ofinterconnections to be made between the device being bonded and theboard or card to which the device is bonded.

While particular devices and materials have been described in connectionwith the first and second embodiments, the invention is not so limited.The invention is applicable to any type of device formed on any type ofsubstrate. Moreover, any type of technology may be used to fabricate thedevices being bonded. For example, GaAs devices on a GaAs substrate maybe bonded to HBT devices. Also, silicon-based devices formed on siliconwafers may also be bonded to either the GaAs-based devices or the HBTtype devices. Technologies such as CMOS, BiCMOS, npn and pnp HBT, VCSEL,PIN, HFET, MESFET, MOSFET, HEMTS, MEMs and JFET may also be used.

The method according to the invention provides a three-dimensional,laminar integrated circuit structure. The device is a multi-chip modulehaving a high integration density with reduced interconnectionparasitics compared to other multi-chip modules. The module offers greatflexibility as it can combine different devices and differenttechnologies.

A further embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGS. 39A-39H. InFIGS. 39A and 39B, a substrate 200 having contacts 201 formed inmaterial 204 is bonded to one or more smaller devices 202 havingsubstrates 206 and contacts 203 (only two are shown for clarity in 39B)formed in material 205. The bonding is performed as described above,that is, devices 202 may be bonded to a carrier first, and then bondedto substrate 200, or devices 202 may be bonded directly to substrate 200collectively or in several bonding operations. The materials 204 and 205consist of interlayer dielectric material commonly used in forminglayers of interconnections in semiconductor devices, such as oxideand/or polymer films.

Not shown are the active devices typically formed in the surface ofsubstrate 200 and substrate 206 of devices 202. Substrate 200 maycontain a completed integrated circuit such as a microprocessor, FPGA,or other logic circuit. Substrate 200 may alternatively contain devicesor small circuits, or may consist of a package containing onlyinterconnections. Smaller devices 202 may contain a memory device suchas a PROM or RAM. Devices 202 may consist of other circuits such as awaveguide, MEMs, or audio circuit. Clearly, many combinations ofsubstrate 200 and devices 202 are possible.

As shown in FIG. 39C, a passivation film 207 such as polyimide orphotoresist is deposited over the substrate 200 and devices 202. Thesubstrate of the devices 206 are removed, completely or partially, bygrinding and/or etching. The structure shown in FIG. 39D illustrates thecase where a portion 208 of substrate 206 remains, and a portion 209 onlayer 204 remains. The remaining thickness 208 of the substrates ofdevices 202 is about 5-10 μm. Other thicknesses appropriate to thespecific application may be employed.

Contact holes 210 are formed through the remaining portion 209 andthrough layer 204 to expose desired ones of contacts 201, and contactholes 211 are formed through the thinned substrate 208 and material 205to expose desired ones of contacts 203 (see FIG. 39E). An insulativelayer 212, such as a conformal glass layer deposited by a vacuum plasmaor sputter technique, is formed over the bonded structure and etched toremain on the sides of contact holes 205 while exposing desired ones ofcontacts 201 and 202 (FIGS. 39F and 39G). A conductive material such asa metal is then deposited and selectively removed to form structures 213and 214, where structure 213 connect contacts 201 and 202 and structure214 acts as a contact for later connection, as shown in FIG. 39H. Herestructure 213 extends over the peripheral side and through the backsideof device 202.

FIG. 39I illustrates where a planarizing 215 material is formed overdevices 202 and substrate 200. Holes 216 and 217 are formed in material215 to expose desired ones of contacts 201 and through portion 208 andmaterial 215 to expose desired ones of contacts 202. A conformalinsulative layer 218 is formed and etched as in FIGS. 39F and 39G, andconductive material such as a metal is formed as in FIGS. 39H to givecontacts 219 and 220, providing the structure shown in FIG. 39J.

Another example is shown in FIGS. 40A-40C. Starting from FIG. 39D, withor without layer 209, contact holes 221 and 222 are formed as in FIG.39E. Material 209 may be removed before forming contact holes 221 and222, or may be removed after contact holes 221 and 222. Contact holescan be formed using selective etching processes and portions of contactholes 221 and 222 can be formed at the same time. For example, ifthinned substrate 208 is silicon and layer 204 and material 205 aresilicon dioxide, a SF6-based etch can be used to etch a portion ofcontact hole 222 through substrate 208 and a CF4-based etch can be usedto etch the remaining portion of contact hole 222 through material 205and the entire contact hole 221 through layer 204. In this case, theportion of contact hole 222 through material 205 may be formed at thesame time as contact hole 221, as shown in FIG. 40A.

Insulating layer 223, such as a conformal glass layer deposited by avacuum technique, is formed over the substrate and etched to yieldcontact holes 224 and 225 (FIG. 40B). A conductive material such as ametal is then deposited and selectively removed to form structures 226and 227, as in FIG. 39H, where structure 226 connect contacts 201 and202 and structures 227 act as contacts for later connection, as shown inFIG. 40C. Here structure 226 also extends over the peripheral side andthrough the backside of device 202.

Obviously, numerous modifications and variations of the presentinvention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is thereforeto be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, theinvention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically describedherein.

1. An integrating method, comprising: bonding a first surface of asemiconductor device having a first substrate with an exposed peripheralside surface to an element having a second substrate with a secondsurface; removing a portion of said first substrate to expose a thirdsurface of said first semiconductor device; and connecting said firstsemiconductor device and said element by forming a connection extendingover said third surface, said peripheral side surface and said secondsurface.
 2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein: said firstsemiconductor device has a smaller area than an area of said element. 3.A method as recited in claim 2, wherein said interconnecting comprises:disposing a first contact region in said third surface; disposing asecond contact region in a region of said second surface outside of aportion of said second surface covered by said first semiconductordevice; and forming said connection between said first and secondcontact regions.
 4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein saidinterconnecting comprises: exposing a first contact region in said thirdsurface; exposing a second contact region in said second surface; andforming said connection between said first and second contact regions.5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein: said removing comprisesexposing in said third surface a first contact structure in said firstdevice; and said method comprises connecting said first contactstructure to said element.
 6. A method as recited in claim 5,comprising: exposing a second contact structure in said element; andconnecting said first contact structure to said second contactstructure.
 7. A method as recited in claim 1, comprising: removingsubstantially all of said first substrate.
 8. A method as recited inclaim 1, comprising forming a planarizing material over said secondsurface; exposing a first contact structure in said first device;forming a via in said material to expose a second contact structure insaid element; and forming said connection between said first and secondcontact structures through said via.
 9. A method as recited in claim 1,comprising: removing substantially all of said substrate to form a layerof semiconductor elements disposed in a non-conductive layer, whereinsaid connecting step comprises connecting at least one of saidsemiconductor elements to said element.
 10. A method as recited in claim9, comprising: exposing a first contact structure in one of saidsemiconductor elements; exposing a second contact structure in saidelement; and said connecting step comprises connecting said firstcontact structure and said second contact structure.
 11. A method asrecited in claim 9, comprising: forming a planarizing material over saidsecond surface; exposing a first contact structure in one of saidsemiconductor elements; forming a via in said material to expose asecond contact structure in said element; and forming said connectionbetween said first and second contact structures through said via.
 12. Amethod as recited in claim 9, comprising: forming said connection incontact with said peripheral side surface.
 13. A method as recited inclaim 1, comprising: removing said substrate after said bonding step.14. A method as recited in claim 1, comprising: forming said connectionin contact with said peripheral side surface.
 15. A method as recited inclaim 1, comprising: forming an insulative material on said peripheralside surface; and forming said connection on said insulative materialformed on said peripheral side surface.
 16. A method as recited in claim1, comprising: forming an insulative layer over said first semiconductordevice and said element; forming said connection over said insulativelayer.
 17. A method as recited in claim 1, comprising: forming aninsulative layer over said first semiconductor device and said element;forming holes in said insulative layer to expose a first contactstructure in said device and a second contact structure in said element;and forming said connection in contact with said first and secondcontact structures.
 18. A method as recited in claim 1, comprising:forming a planarizing material over said device and said element;forming first holes in said planarizing material to expose a firstcontact structure in said device and a second contact structure in saidelement; forming an insulative layer over said planarixing material;forming second holes in said insulative layer to expose said first andsecond contact structures; and forming said connection in contact withsaid first and second contact structures.
 19. A method of integratingsemiconductor devices, comprising: bonding a first surface of a firstsemiconductor device, having a first substrate with a plurality of firstsemiconductor elements formed in a first insulative material and anexposed peripheral side surface of said first insulative material, to asecond surface of a second semiconductor device; removing said firstsubstrate; exposing a first contact structure in one of said firstsemiconductor elements; exposing a second contact structure in saidsecond device; and connecting said first contact structure and secondcontact structure by forming a connection extending over said peripheralside surface.
 20. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein: said firstsemiconductor device has a smaller area than an area of said secondsemiconductor device.
 21. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein saidinterconnecting comprises: disposing said second contact structure in aregion outside of a portion of said second surface covered by said firstsemiconductor device.
 22. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein: saidremoving comprises exposing said first contact structure.
 23. A methodas recited in claim 19, comprising forming an insulative material oversaid second surface; forming a via in said second insulative material toexpose said second contact structure; connecting said first and secondcontact structures through said via.
 24. A method as recited in claim19, comprising: connecting said first and second contact structures byforming a conductive material in contact with said peripheral sidesurface.
 25. A method as recited in claim 19, comprising: removing saidsubstrate after said bonding step.
 26. A method as recited in claim 19,comprising: forming an insulative material on said peripheral sidesurface; and connecting said first and second contact structures byforming a connection on said second insulative material formed on saidperipheral side surface.
 27. A method as recited in claim 19,comprising: forming an insulative layer over said first and secondsemiconductor devices; forming said connection over said insulativelayer.
 28. A method as recited in claim 19, comprising: forming aninsulative layer over said first and second semiconductor devicesforming holes in said insulative layer to expose said first and secondcontact structures; and forming said connection in contact with saidfirst and second contact structures.
 29. A method as recited in claim19, comprising: forming a planarizing material over said device and saidelement; forming first holes in said planarizing material to expose saidfirst and second contact structures; forming an insulative layer oversaid planarixing material; forming second holes in said insulative layerto expose said first and second contact structures; and forming saidconnection in contact with said first and second contact structures.